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NYT Takes a Deep Look at Realignment, Fanbase #'s

Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:19 pm
Posted by Smoke Ring
Scenic Highway Crackhouse
Member since Dec 2010
4240 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:19 pm
Geography of College Football Fans and Realignment

quote:

The only two conferences that can feel completely secure right now are the Big Ten and the S.E.C..

They’re the two that have taken the most conservative attitude toward expansion over the past decade or two, waiting for programs of the caliber of Penn State, Nebraska and Texas A&M to become interested before increasing their ranks. They’ve been rewarded with extreme loyalty among their fan bases. In a sport where rooting interests are so highly localized, that goes a long way toward explaining their success.
Posted by LA kid but AU fan
Jay Prosch Fan Club: Historian
Member since Apr 2007
4634 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:23 pm to
They extrapolate there are more AU fans than Bama fans. Their methodology is obviously imperfect. (serious.)
Posted by DWag215
Houston, TX
Member since Aug 2011
7215 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:23 pm to
Must say, I was shocked to read the most objective, comprehensive article on realignment from the folks at NYT.

The facts are polarizing. Someone needs to send this to Finebaum. Hopefully, it will allow him and his audience to engage in a little critical thinking (but not really critical) to see why this is the correct move.
Posted by elpechis
Member since Aug 2011
113 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:25 pm to
very in depth read

good for us i guess
Posted by DWag215
Houston, TX
Member since Aug 2011
7215 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:28 pm to
Don't show this to ESPN. Their analysis had approximately 67% of the country pegged as die-hard orangebloods.
Posted by jread07
Member since Jul 2011
56 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:32 pm to
Top 10


SEC


ACC


B1G


Big 12


PAC


Big East


This post was edited on 9/19/11 at 2:34 pm
Posted by jturn17
Member since Jan 2011
4978 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:33 pm to
Nate specifically says in the article that these are estimations because getting finite data on college football fans would take an incredibly expensive study. So he's using the best information he has available. So while not perfect, it's better than what we've been working with before, which was nothing.
Posted by jturn17
Member since Jan 2011
4978 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:35 pm to
Nate Silver has always been a great read. He gained fame back in 2007-2008 by predicting very accurately the Presidential Primaries and General Election, and was a big deal at Baseball Prospectus before that. He's not always perfect, but I think he does his best to be objective and let the numbers speak for themselves.
Posted by LSU NO Tigah
New Orleans
Member since Sep 2005
5613 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:39 pm to
Funny that they put A&M in with Penn State and Nebraska. A&M has nowhere near the pedigree of the other two. Makes me laugh to read crap like that.
Posted by AUCE05
Member since Dec 2009
42563 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:39 pm to
Not really. AU really is as close to the state of GA as you can be and has a strong following in the state. Even if it's a low %, GA has like 8-9 million people.

:nb4ButthurtGumps:
This post was edited on 9/19/11 at 2:42 pm
Posted by noladan
new orleans
Member since Nov 2003
3802 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:40 pm to
He does admit that it's hard to get an accurate measure without spending a ton of money, but some of these numbers seem a bit off. For instance I have a hard time believing LSU ranks 4th in SEC in popularity but would rank 5th in the ACC.... Miami for instance has a fair weather national following, but they're certainly not rabid (at least not compared to most sec fan bases).

Clemson has a fairly rabid fan base but I doubt they should be ranked higher than LSU.

This post was edited on 9/19/11 at 2:41 pm
Posted by Bob Ag
Austin
Member since Aug 2011
3008 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:44 pm to
quote:

Funny that they put A&M in with Penn State and Nebraska. A&M has nowhere near the pedigree of the other two. Makes me laugh to read crap like that.



Did you even read the article?
Posted by DWag215
Houston, TX
Member since Aug 2011
7215 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:48 pm to
quote:

Funny that they put A&M in with Penn State and Nebraska. A&M has nowhere near the pedigree of the other two. Makes me laugh to read crap like that.


Sorry, would you mind pointing out where the subtitle "pedigree" is located on the graphs? I keep looking for it but I don't see it.
Posted by SWCBonfire
South Texas
Member since Aug 2011
1261 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:51 pm to
Population counts:

Texas: 25 mil
SC and LA: 4.5-4.6 mil

So if 100% of Louisiana is counted as rabid LSU tiger fans, and only a paltry 20% of Texans are active A&M fans, we've still got you beat by 400,000 fans.

This obviously has some issues with methodology (like SC having similar population as LA but split between USCe and Clemson - I guess Clemson has out of state interest as well), but the general trends are probably true. You also have to factor that people in areas where computer use might be a bit less prevalent got shut out, but that doesn't disprove why Baylor is the second-lowest in all AQ conferences.

You could argue relative ranking like in the USNWR rankings (like whether Florida or A&M are really tied or not, etc.) but no one is going to compare A&M academically with Texas Tech, for example. The distance between what may be somewhat subjective ranking is too great.
This post was edited on 9/19/11 at 2:55 pm
Posted by Duckie
Tippy Toe, Louisiana
Member since Apr 2010
24314 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:52 pm to
quote:

He does admit that it's hard to get an accurate measure without spending a ton of money, but some of these numbers seem a bit off. For instance I have a hard time believing LSU ranks 4th in SEC in popularity but would rank 5th in the ACC.... Miami for instance has a fair weather national following, but they're certainly not rabid (at least not compared to most sec fan bases).


Agreed. No way it would place 4th in the ACC>
Posted by jturn17
Member since Jan 2011
4978 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:53 pm to
You may very well be right being that the study is an online survey (always skewed). It may not be perfect, but it's at least a starting point with somewhat of an objective perspective.

The ACC schools are mostly benefiting from being near bigger cities, where there are more casual "fans" than what LSU would have. This is easily the case in Miami, where there are lots of UM fans, but very few who actually are rabid fans. However, that's another study entirely trying to separate out casual, average, and rabid fans and applying weighted percentages for each.
Posted by molsusports
Member since Jul 2004
36112 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:55 pm to
wait, vandy has almost 400k hardcore fans?

and they still can't fill up a small stadium?
Posted by Lacour
Member since Nov 2009
32949 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:56 pm to
Clemson is the 10th most popular football program in the nation
Posted by The Easter Bunny
Minnesota
Member since Jan 2005
45568 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 2:57 pm to
and no way GT has that many fans
Posted by Draconian Sanctions
Markey's bar
Member since Oct 2008
84849 posts
Posted on 9/19/11 at 3:05 pm to
quote:


Must say, I was shocked to read the most objective, comprehensive article on realignment from the folks at NYT.


The New York Times is probably the best newspaper in the country
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